Apparatus and process for texturing brick



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I 11/ z A J n 9, 9 J..E.SM.TH 1,80 512 APPARATUS AND PROCESS FORTEXTURING BRICK Filed Jan. 28, 1929 Patented June 9, 1931 UNIT-so STATESPAT ENATQ OFFICE- J; ERROL sMI'TH; 0F STONEGRE'EK, onto, AssIGNo'R ToTHE" STONE CREEK :B'RIGI': 00M- PANY; or sT'onEcRnnK, OHIO, A"CORPORATION or onto APPARATUS AND PROCESS non TEXTURING BRICKApplication'filed- January 28, 1929. Serial" No. 335,616.

cut into bricks, tiles or the like by the usual I cut-off table. I A

The bricks produced by this method have anobjectionable shine orsmoothness of surface, and'ar'e so regular and smooth that they produceav monotonous, even wall surface,

I when laid up in' the wall of a building;

of the column, upon which they operate, thus To overcome thisobjectionable smooth and 1 even surface, Various methods of surfacetreatment have been resorted toin the past. A so-called mattTteXture hasbeen produced by means of wires stretched'across the mouth of the die,whereby the surface of the column is cutofi or removed, leaving. amechanical v 7 roughness of 1 surface,

By means of a device very similar to the" ordinary lawn or garden rake,the surface of the columnhas been longitudinally scored, or scratched,producing, a brick which .is

known as the vertical texture, or rug 'texture brick. Such brick,although they have beenlusedw toa great extent in recent years, producea wall having vertical, parallel grooves, presenting. an even and,mechanical appearance,

Rotating blades or cuttershave also been used to removea' portion ofthesurface of the column,leavinga roughened surfaceupon the finishedbrick. Such blades or"cutters' rotate upon an axis parallel with thesurface also producing a symmetrical or mechanical effect present in theother text iresabove ing. the surfaces of bricks, tiles and'the like; insuch amanner that the finished bricks, and the walls-built therefrom, donot? have the appearance of mechanical roughness.

A' further objectis to produce-a roughened surface upon the brick, orthe like, having the appearance-ofradiating grooves and ribs" ofirregular shape and form, thus entirely overcoming the mechanicalappearance pr'oduced by the methods above referred to. V

The above and other objects may be at tained by the use of rotatingcutters or blades, each rotating upon" an axis perpendicular tothesurface of the column being textured, the working edges of the cutterblades being-J beveled, and the cutter operating: at aslight distancebelow the original-surface of the' column. I I i J An embodiment of theinvention thus set forth in general terms is illustrated in theaccompanying-drawings, in which V Fig; l isa side elevation of a-die,showing" a column being extruded therefrom, the improved texturingapparatus; being shown roughening the surfaces of'the column; Fig. 2,;atop'plan view of; the same i Fig. 3, an enlarged, bottom" plan viewofone of the rotary cutters; and v p I 'Fig. 4, a perspective. view ofabricktcxtured by the improved apparatus-.-

Similar numerals refcr to similar parts throughout the drawings.

A portion ofa brick'machin-e of usual and well known construction, isshown. at 10, ;provided, as in. usual pract1ce, With'the ordinary die11, from'which the clay, or shale, is-extruded in a column asindicatedat 12; I

This column is adapted to be then out into 9 bricks, as-indicated at 13,i-n'theusual manner, by the ordinary cut ofi' table (not shown). Theabove isv-all' usual' and customary in o-rd-inary practice, and initself-forms no art of the presentinvention; 7 a V When'the column issevered-into bricks, by

means of the cut-o lf table, the face and end surfaces of the bricks areformed from the top and side surfaces, respectively, 0fthe-colv to whichthe invention pertains,

' umn, anditis the teXturing of these surfaces" I prefer to firsttexture the sidesof the co'lumn, and this-is accomplished by I apair" ofopposed, rotary cL'it-ter's,-operating upon the sides of the column;near the pointwhere the same emerges from the die. These sidecuttersbeing thus opposed, a uniform width of column is assured.

These side cutters are shown generally at 14, and each may comprise ashaft 15, perpendicular to the surface to be textured, and rotated byany suitable means such as a motor 16, a head 17, and one or morecutting blades 18 removably secured in the head, as by the set screws19.

' and ribs of irregular shape and position, as

shown at 20 in Fig. 1, and in the finished brick illustrated in Fig. 4.

For the purpose of producing a similar texture upon the top surface ofthe column, a top cutter, similar to the side cutters above described,but of larger diameter, is arranged to operate upon the top of thecolumn, preferably beyond the side cutters, and opposed to the endlesscarrier table 21, which is usual- 1y provided beneath the column at thispoint.

his top cutter may comprise the vertical shaft 22 driven, as by themotor 23, preferably at a speed of about four hundred and fiftyrevolutions per minute, and provided with the head 24 upon which one ormore cutter blades 25 may be detachably mounted as by the set screws 26;This rotating cutter is substantially the same as the side cutters abovedescribed excepting that the blades are longer, as illustrated in thedrawing, in order to engage across the entire width of the top surfaceof the column, as shown in Fig. 2.

The top cutter is also adjustable toward and from the column so that thebeveled cut ting edges 27 of the blades may be inserted to the desireddepth, preferably about oneeighth of an'inch, below the original surfaceof the column to remove this amount of material and texture or roughenthe top surface of the column in the same manner as above described asto the side surfaces thereof, producing the textured surface shown at 28in Figs. 2 and 4 formed of radiating ribs and grooves of irregular shapeand spacing.

The particular bevel upon the edges of the cutter blades and the-factthat they are inserted beneath the original surface of the column tearsthe outer surface from the column and pulls the material, producingthese radiating irregularly shaped and spaced ribs and grooves.

Although the particular construction and arrangement of cutters hereinillustrated and described is especially adapted for accomplishing thepurposes of the invention, it should be understood that the constructionand arrangement of the cutters may be considerably changed withoutdeparting from the invention.

Briefly the invention consists in the texturing of the bricks and thelike by rotating a cutter or blade over the surface to be textured in aplane parallel with said surface. The finished brick or the likeproduced with this apparatu-sand method has a very pleasing appearancewhich entirely overcomes the mechanical effect presentin the other formsof textured brick above referred to as the ribs and grooves are neitherregularly shaped nor evenly spaced and are not located in vertical orhorizontal rows but radiate throughout the entire surface of the brick,producing in a wall built of the brick, the general effect of a sunset.

The particular effect produced is due to the fact that the rotarycutters each rotates on an axis perpendicular'to the surface beingtextured and the cutter blades thus being radial to the surface tearthrough the column and pull the finished surface, producing the radialirregularly shaped and spaced ribs and grooves thereon.

I claim:

1 A texturing apparatus for a plastic column, and the like, includingopposed cutters having radial blades and mounted upon axes perpendicularto opposite side surfaces of the column, and means for rotating thecutter-s upon their axes.

2. A texturing apparatus for a plastic column, and the like, includingopposed cutters having radial blades and mounted upon axes perpendicularto opposite side surfaces of the column and movable toward and from thecolumn, and means for rotating the cutters upon their axes.

3. The method of texturing a moving plastic column and the like whichconsists in rotating a head containing blades on an axis at rightanglesto the surface to be textured, the blades moving in a plane parallelwith and under said surface to produce a texture with irregular linesradiating over the entire surface of the column, and cutting the columninto bricks and the like. I

4;. The method of texturing a plastic column and the like which consistsin subjecting the surface to be textured to the tearing action of bladesperpendicular to and rotating in a plane parallel with said surface.

5. The method of texturing a plastic column and the like which consistsin subjecting the surface to be textured to the tearing action ofbladesperpendicular to and rotating in a plane parallel with said surface,said blades rotating about an axis perpendicular to the central portionof said surface.

6. The method of texturing a plastic column and the like which consistsin tearing off the outer skin of the surface to be textured bysubjecting said surface to rotary scraping forces rotating about an axisperpendicular to the plane of said surface.

In testimony that I claim the above, I have hereunto subscribed my name.

J. ERROL SMITH.

